Fasting blood glucose tests as an initial step in gestational diabetes screening could eliminate the need for oral glucose tolerance tests in most pregnant women, according to an Australian study.

Queensland doctors found that excluding gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) in women with fasting venous plasma glucose levels below 4.7mmol/L did not increase rates of adverse perinatal outcomes compared with those screened with oral glucose tolerance tests (OGTTs).

“A fasting glucose level is by far and away easier, quicker, better tolerated and a really practical way to assess [GDM] … and thus eliminates the need for an OGTT for nearly 80% of women,” study co-author Associate Professor Michael d’Emden told AusDoc.

The team compared outcomes between women screened for GDM with OGTTs in 2019 and those screened with fasting blood glucose tests — a method widely adopted nationwide in response to COVID-19 — in 2020.